THE EDITOR – Indonesia’s former Minister of Trade Thomas Trikasih Lembong was named as a suspect by the Attorney’s General Office (AGO) for allegedly being involved in sugar import cases that cost the country up to IDR 400 billions. However, in five trials he has been put through since 29 October 2024, the AGO doesn’t blame him for the country’s loss as the raw sugar import license was passed from the previous minister.
Tom Lembong, as Thomas is widely known by, was appointed as the Minister of Trade on 12 August 2015 after Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo did a reshuffle. The position was previously chaired by Rachmat Gobel.
In the trial, it was said that the raw sugar import license was issued on 21 May 2015 – when Rachmat was still in office.
It is not a secret that Indonesia has always lacked sugar. It leads the government to import raw or semi-processed sugar that is made from cane and brown.
The raw sugar must still be processed until it’s white and can be consumed.
In other words, sugar is indeed a profitable business in Indonesia as its people love to consume sweet foods. It is despite there are many healthier and high-value alternatives such as brown sugar that is widely loved by the Taiwanese.
ALL MINISTERS IMPORTED SUGAR, WHY IS ONLY TOM LEMBONG BROUGHT TO TRIAL?
In the history of Indonesia, almost all of the Ministers of Trade imported sugar. The importing process done by Tom Lembong was no different than the other ministers, namely issuing a new import permit or continuing the permit issued by the previous official.
Hence, his case is a bit unique. All the allegations used by the AGO against him are even proven false in court.
The Editor on Wednesday (26/3/2025) specifically interviewed Tom Lembong’s lawyer, Ari Yusuf Amir, about this case.
1. Indonesia had no surplus in sugar
Data from Statistics Indonesia (BPS) shows that the domestic sugar production in 2015 only reached 2.49 million tons, while the national consumption was 2.86 million tons.
2. Private sector must be involved in importing sugar
Ari Yusuf said that the government set a rule on involving private companies in importing sugar as the State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) can not do it by themselves.
“They still can’t do it until now. They need help from the private sector to do the processing, distribution, etc,” he explained.
Ari conveyed that involving the private sector was even done by ministers before Tom Lembong. They are Rachmat Gobel and Enggartiasto Lukita.
But why is only Tom Lembong targeted?
“The investigator (prosecutor’s office) is factually wrong. What does investigator mean?” he questioned.
3. Sugar must be imported as raw crystal sugar
Ari said that sugar import must be done by importing raw crystal sugar (GKM) so it can be processed to be white crystal sugar (GKP). The whole process itself is claimed to be cheaper and gives more profit for the industry within the country.
That way, Tom Lembong’s procedure in importing sugar was by the book. It was also done in accordance with the needs.
“If he did otherwise, he would harm the farmers and consumers,” he said.
4. Amount of state loss not disclosed
Ari has been questioning the way AGO calculates the state loss in this case. According to him, AGO has never done it in the first place but instead telling the public that the country suffers a great loss due to sugar import done by Tom Lembong when he was still in office.
“The amount itself is a mere guess,” he said. “There’s no state loss until Tom Lembong was detained. And after three months of his detention, they found it and started to contact the Financial and Development Supervisory Agency (BPKP) to try making a calculation.”
“And when we asked the BPKP, they could not give the result yet. We assume they haven’t finished it,” he explained.
According to him, the AGO should be transparent about how to calculate the state loss because the price of raw sugar at the farm level and production are different.
“We just found out that BPKP did calculate,” he added.
TOM LEMBONG’S CASE IS HIGHLY POLITICISED
With all the mentioned facts, Ari thinks that his client’s case is highly politicised.
Tom Lembong is known for being close with Anies Baswedan. The former presidential candidate even showed up in Tom’s trial on Thursday (6/3/2025) at Central Jakarta District Court to give some support.
Anies was paired with Cak Imin in the 2024 Presidential Election. They went against two other pairs, Prabowo Subianto-Gibran Rakabuming Raka and Ganjar Pranowo-Mahfud MD.
According to Ari, a number of Ministers of Trade did the same policy as Tom Lembong. If his client is proven to be guilty, it’s right to bring other former ministers to go through the same trials,
“In his case, that’s what I see. It is likely to be politicised by using the law to put pressure on political opponents. They try to find weak legal basis and make law enforcement is so misguided,” he conveyed,
THE ATTORNEY’S GENERAL OFFICE FABRICATED TOM LEMBONG’S CASE
Ari revealed the facts of the fabrication of Tom Lembong’s case by the AGO, including:
The state loss because of import permits issued by Tom Lembong was not found when he was detained
“How could he be detained when there’s no state loss?”
Tom Lembong was criminalised unilaterally and through coercion
According to Ari, Tom Lembong was arrested without a proper trial. If his policy as Minister of Trade is considered wrong, then the examination should go through BPK (Supreme Audit Agency), administrative sanctions, and PTUN (State Administrative Court).
“It’s not a crime if it’s a policy. In this case Mr Tom’s policy is not even wrong,” Ari said.
The AGO doesn’t find any flow of funds sent to Tom Lembong
Ari has been questioning the use of the ongoing trials against his client. The AGO, he said, doesn’t even find any flow of funds to Tom Lembong’s own account.
MEDIA AND PUBLIC NEED TO PAY ATTENTION TO TOM LEMBONG’S TRIAL
Economist and political observer of Political Economy and Policy Studies (PEPS) Anthony Budiawan revealed that Indonesia is facing unfair law enforcement. Many authorities, he said, use the law as a political tool to criminalize people.
“Today’s laws are sharp to the bottom, but blunt to the top,” he told The Editor.
According to him, there are a number of officials and even ministers who are alleged having done unlawful acts but not being brought to trial as they side with the authorities.
“On the other hand, there are people who did nothing wrong but get criminalized, hunted for their non-existent sins, and arrested and jailed,” he said.
For Tom Lembong’s case, Anthony asked the public, especially the media, to pay close attention to the trials in order to push the judges to be fair and make decisions in accordance with the law.
If none watches closely, he believes the Attorney’s General Office will keep looking for Tom Lembong’s non-exist sins in this case and ignore all the facts that have been said in the court.
And if his trial is purely a law enforcement act, Anthony requested the facts that have been delivered be used as evidence and not be ignored.
“Even though there has been a lot of evidence showing Tom Lembong is not guilty in giving permits to import sugar, he still can not be given a discharge judgement. His case, since the first day, has been highly politicized,” he concluded.
LIST OF COMPANIES THAT SAID HAD PARTNERED WITH TOM LEMBONG
1. PT Angels Products in the name of Tony Wijaya Ng
The company is accused of costing the state IDR 144,113,226,287.05 through sugar import cooperation with Induk Koperasi Kartika (Inkopkar), Induk Koperasi Kepolisian Negara Republik Indonesia (Inkoppol), and PT Perusahaan Perdagangan Indonesia (Persero) or PT PPI.
2. PT Makassar Tene in the name of Then Surianto Eka Prasetyo
The company is accused of costing the state IDR 31,190,887,951.27 through sugar import cooperation with Inkoppol and PT PPI.
3. PT Sentra Usahatama in the name of Hansen Setiawan
The company is accused of costing the state IDR 36,870,441,420.95 through sugar import cooperation with Inkoppol and PT PPI.
4. PT Medan Sugar Industry in the name of Indra Suryaningrat
The company is accused of costing the state IDR 64,551,135,580.81 through sugar import cooperation with Inkoppol and PT PPI.
5. PT Permata Dunia Sukses Utama in the name of Eka Sapanca
The company is accused of costing the state IDR 26,160,671,773.93 through sugar import cooperation with Inkoppol and PT PPI.
6. PT Andalan Furnindo in the name of Wisnu Hendraningrat
The company is accused of costing the state IDR 42,870,481,069.89 through sugar import cooperation with Inkoppol and PT PPI.
7. PT Duta Sugar International in the name of Hendrogiarto A. Tiwow
The company is accused of costing the state IDR 41,226,293,608.16 through sugar import cooperation with PT PPI.
8. PT Berkah Manis Makmur in the name of Hans Falita Hutama
The company is accused of costing the state IDR 74,583,958,290.80 through sugar import cooperation with Inkoppol, PT PPI, and Satuan Koperasi Kesejahteraan Pegawai TNI-Polri/Pusat Koperasi Kepolisian Republik Indonesia (SKKP TNI–Polri/Puskoppol).
9. PT Kebun Tebu Mas in the name of Ali Sandjaja Boedidarmo
The company is accused of costing the state IDR 47,868,288,631.27 through sugar import cooperation with PT PPI.
10. PT Dharmapala Usaha Sukses in the name of Ramakrishna Prasad Venkatesha Murthy
The company is accused of costing the state IDR 5,973,356,356.22 through sugar import cooperation with Inkoppol.
